by Dennis Ligane
Perth’s Iconic Bell Tower celebrates its 25th anniversary with a weekend of activities December 13–14. Entry will be free that weekend and a range of family entertainment and activities is being staged for the two days.
And while the bells will be rung to celebrate the anniversary you won’t hear them across the city because sadly they are rung sotto voce. Blame the WA 1997 Noise Pollution Act.
The bells of Perth’s two Cathedrals will ring out loud and clear throughout the city to celebrate the festive season. But to hear the historic Swan Bells in the Barrack Square Bell Tower you’ll have to be up close.
Twelve of the Swan Bells came from St Martin in the Fields church in London and were presented as a gift to Perth. They date back to the 14th century, feature in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons and are the only royal bells to have left London. An extra six were cast to make this one of the largest rings in the world, weighing in at nine tonnes.
An extra bell has been added since the Swan Bell Tower was commissioned 25 years ago. It is the ANZAC bell, installed in 2018. Cast locally and weighing in at 6.5 tonnes, it is the largest swinging bell in Australia and is expected to last more than 500 years as an enduring memorial to Australian and New Zealand servicemen and women
Although donated to Western Australia in 1988 for the bicentenary the bells were not installed until 2000. The WA Noise Pollution Act was brought in in 1997 and does not discriminate between the Swan Bells, noisy parties in the suburbs and rock bands in outdoor venues.
All the other bell towers whose bells were installed prior to 1997 are not restricted by the Act and are allowed to ring out loud and joyously.
The Swan Bells 25th celebration will be muted as far as bell ringing is concerned but on the other hand there will be plenty of family activities and free entry.
There are 50 bell ringers in WA and a team of enthusiasts ring the Swan Bells on Thursdays from midday to 1pm and Sundays from 10.30–11.30am.
Bell sets are considered to be musical instruments and can be used to ring recognisable tunes, although to many of us, the clanging of the bells sounds random. However, bell ringers perform a tightly controlled recital to produce precise variations in sequences, known as “changes”.
Change ringing evolved in England after the Reformation in 1547 but developed fully during the 17th and early 18th centuries. The practice spread to most of the British colonies in the nineteenth century. Australia now boasts 100 bell sets.
These bell sets are hung in a circle and are rung in a controlled pattern. The bells come in varying sizes and are each tuned to create a full octave. The ringing is all about precision as they work on their changing of the timing and the computation.
Most of WA’s bell sets are to be found in cathedrals and churches, but there are also sets outside the ecclesiastical domain. They include the eight-bell set in Rockingham Civic Centre and also an eight-bell set in Balga owned by the Swan Bell Foundation and used by the Bell Tower bell ringers for practice.
Campanology enthusiast Adam Beer has a mini eight-bell set in Bridgetown. He has bell ringing weekends at his home where enthusiasts can practise technics of “handling”, “rounds”, “changes”, “methods”, “bobs” and “dodges” as they perform their renditions.
Adam says mini ring sets like his eight bells are popular because they give enthusiasts opportunities to practise in private.
Adam explains: “Bigger bells mean more noise, as there is more material to vibrate. The largest bell in St George’s Cathedral weighs in at 500kg; the largest bell in my set is only 15kg.”
Ringing large bells can be a noise hazard for the ringers as well as nearby residents.
Full-size tower bells (such as at St George’s) have an extra floor between the ringing room (where you ring the bells from) and the bell chamber (where the bells are located), to protect the ringers.
The largest bell set in Australia is the National Carillon in Canberra that has 57 bells. It was a gift from the British Government to Australia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Canberra. While the complete set of bells in the Swan Bell Tower weighs nine tonnes, the biggest bell in the Canberra set weighs nine tonnes on its own.
